On Kembel, the Doctor finds a message left by Marc Cory, detailing the
Daleks' plan to use a time destructor to take over the universe. The
Doctor steals the taranium core needed to fuel the destructor, and is then
pursued across time and space by the Daleks. The Doctor's ally, Space
Security Service agent Bret Vyon, is killed by his own sister, Sara
Kingdom, at the orders of Mavic Chen, the traitorous Guardian of the Solar
System. It is up to the Doctor to convince Sara of the truth of her
misguided allegiance, and avoid an apocalyptic triple threat in the form
of Chen, the Daleks, and the time destructor.

Production

In the weeks leading up to Christmas 1964, The Dalek Invasion Of Earth had been a ratings
goldmine for Doctor Who. By late February 1965, producer Verity
Lambert and Dalek creator Terry Nation had already discussed the
possibility of Nation writing another six-part Dalek story, to air in
November and December 1965 and hopefully replicate the earlier adventure's
success. When the Doctor Who production office was allocated an
extra episode at the end of the second recording block, it was agreed that
this would be used as a one-off “trailer” for Nation's new
story. This special episode, featuring none of the regular cast, was
commissioned on February 25th, and would eventually be known as Mission To The Unknown.

In late May, the BBC's Managing Director, Huw Wheldon, suggested that the
Daleks' appearances in Doctor Who should be maximised. (Reputedly,
this came at the advice of his mother-in-law, whom Wheldon viewed as
representative of the average viewer.) To this end, Head of Drama Sydney
Newman contacted Lambert, through new Head of Serials Gerald Savory, to
recommend that Nation's new Dalek story be expanded into a twelve-part
epic. Lambert replied on May 28th, noting that this would be possible if
outgoing Doctor Who story editor Dennis Spooner could be
commissioned to write the final six episodes, based on an outline by
Nation. With agreement on this point reached, Spooner and Nation were
formally commissioned on July 5th and 16th, respectively.

Several elements of Terry Nation's outline drew upon ideas
considered for The Chase

Nation's original, untitled outline differed from the finished product in
numerous respects. The setting was the year AD 1,000,000 and the Daleks
had set up shop on the planet Varga. The “007 of space” met by
the Doctor was called Brett Walton, the President of the Solar System was
Banhoong, and Brett's traitorous friend on Earth was simply named Tom. It
was the arrival of the Daleks on the “Devils Planet” (later
christened Desperus) which distracted the convicts enough to allow the
Doctor and his friends to escape, and there was no mention of any
criminals stealing on board the spaceship. Tom elected not to betray the
Doctor's party and was murdered by the Daleks for helping them to escape
to “the Planet of Mists” (later called Mira). The return of
the Doctor and company to Varga happened at the start of episode ten.
Several elements of Nation's outline drew upon ideas considered for The Chase, the previous Daleks serial.

One significant factor in the scripting process was the fact that part
seven would air on Christmas Day. Because many viewers would be unable (or
unwilling) to tune in on that day, it was decided that the installment
should be a comedic interlude having little to do with the main plot.
Recalling that Z Cars writer Keith Dewhurst had turned down his
offer to write for Doctor Who, incoming story editor Donald Tosh
suggested that part of the storyline could be a spoof of the popular BBC
crime drama. Nation and Spooner agreed to swap assignments on parts six
and seven, enabling Nation to tackle the Christmas episode.

As the summer progressed, Lambert handed over the reins of Doctor
Who to new producer John Wiles. Wiles, like Tosh, was unhappy to have
inherited the sprawling Dalek story, feeling it an imposition from the BBC
brass that was out of line with his vision for the show. However, Wiles
was able to secure an extra £3000 for the serial after complaining
that the epic would be very costly to make. Wiles and Tosh hoped that the
new story would serve as a final melee between the Doctor and the Daleks,
and that the monsters could then be retired permanently. On July 23rd,
William Hartnell's contract was revised to reflect the expansion of Serial
V from six to twelve episodes.

Nation had begun writing his scripts for the companion team of Vicki and
Steven Taylor. Late in the summer, however, he was informed by Wiles
and Tosh that Vicki was being written out of Doctor Who in the
preceding serial, The Myth Makers. Wiles and
Tosh had devised a new companion, Trojan handmaiden Katarina, who would
join the Doctor and Steven at the end of that adventure, but they now felt
that Katarina was unsuitable as an ongoing character. Nation was asked to
kill off Katarina in the fourth episode of the Dalek story, and to
thereafter introduce a new protagonist who could fill the role of the girl
companion at least for the remainder of the serial.

Sara Kingdom was envisaged as a modern woman in the vein
of Cathy Gale from The Avengers

To this end, Nation developed Sara Kingdom, whom he envisaged as being a
modern, aggressive woman in the vein of Cathy Gale, the character played
by Honor Blackman in The Avengers. Sara was originally conceived as
Brett Walton's lover, but this was later amended to make them siblings.
Wiles and Tosh apparently gave some thought to making Sara a permanent
companion, but they soon reconsidered and elected to have Sara die at the
story's climax.

Various other changes were made as Nation scripted his episodes. Banhoong
became Mavick (later, Mavic) Chen. The inhabitants of the Planet of Mists
were first called Visilens; their final name of “Visians” was
sometimes spelt “Visions”. The Technics were originally called
Technocrats. Varga was renamed Kemble and then Kembel, although the name
“Varga” would be retained for the Daleks' murderous plant
life. The setting was also switched, to AD 4000.

As the summer wore on, Nation became more and more preoccupied with The
Baron, a new adventure series for which he was acting as script
supervisor (with Spooner as his assistant). This meant that Tosh had to
carry out considerable rewriting on Nation's lean scripts for the Dalek
story. Much of the added material would focus on Mavic Chen. Of particular
concern for Tosh was the vastly underwritten Christmas episode, which
clocked in at less than half the length of a typical Doctor Who
script. Tosh made various additions and modifications to this installment.
One key change came at the end, which in Nation's version saw the Doctor
invent the cream-pie-in-the-face routine made famous in silent movies.

Spooner, meanwhile, decided to flesh out the Egyptian segment of the
adventure by reintroducing the Monk, whom he had created for the previous
season's The Time Meddler. The Monk would
appear in parts eight through ten, Spooner having decided to delay the
Doctor's return to Kembel until the eleventh installment. Spooner sought
inspiration in history for the names of his Egyptian characters. These
included Khepren (for Chephren or Khafre, builder of the second of the
Great Pyramids of Giza), Hyksos (a Semitic-Asiatic tribe which invaded
Egypt around the seventeenth century BC; the character was originally
called Cerinus) and Tuthmos (for Tuthmosis or Thutmose, a name shared by
four Egyptian kings).

To flesh out the Egyptian segment, Dennis Spooner
reintroduced the Monk, whom he had created for the previous season

Several titles were ascribed to the epic. After briefly going by the
prosaic “The Daleks (Part IV)” and then “Battle Of
Wits”, it finally became The Daleks' Master Plan, although
different documentation would offer up a litany of minor variations. The
director handed the reigns of the mammoth serial was Douglas Camfield, who
had most recently helmed The Time Meddler.

Camfield and Wiles gave great thought to the adventure's futuristic
setting, and the effect that the advanced date might have on names of
people and places. With this in mind, Wiles wrote to Nation seeking his
agreement to modify many of the names in the scripts; Nation consented,
asking only that Mavic Chen and Sara Kingdom remain unaltered. The serial
therefore saw the change of Brett Walton to Bret Vyon; Reinmal to Roald;
Gilson (originally male) to Lizan; Kirkland to Kirksen; Carlton to
Karlton; Barker to Borkar; Tom to Dexter and then Daxtar; Frayn to Froyn;
and Bosworth to Rhynmal. Similarly, New Washington was changed to
Communications Centre Earth. There was also concern that William Hartnell
would have difficulty pronouncing “vitaranium”, the name
Nation had coined for the crucial ingredient of the time destructor stolen
by the Doctor. After “VX2” and “vita” were
rejected (the latter because Wiles feared it sounded too much like
“vitamin”), it was decided to simply drop the first syllable
and use the term “taranium”.

In early September, the role of Bret Vyon went to Nicholas Courtney.
Courtney had auditioned to play King Richard in The
Crusade, also helmed by Camfield, and the director had not
forgotten him. A few years later, Courtney would join Doctor Who on
a semi-regular basis as Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart. Around September
14th, Camfield cast Jean Marsh -- who had played Richard's sister Joanna
in the same serial -- as Sara Kingdom. Marsh had originally worked as a
model and dancer before moving to the United States where she worked with
Sir John Gielgud on Broadway and appeared in an episode of The Twilight
Zone. Returning to the UK, Marsh had appeared in such series as
Danger Man and The Saint. For five years in the late
Fifties, the actress had been married to Jon Pertwee, who would later be
cast as the Third Doctor. Marsh was introduced to the press at a photocall
on December 4th.

Ironically, Katarina's death scene was Adrienne Hill's
first Doctor Who performance

Filming for The Daleks' Master Plan got started at the Ealing
Television Film Studios on September 27th. Amongst the sequences captured
on this day was Katarina's death scene -- ironically, Adrienne Hill's
first performance for Doctor Who. Filming continued for the rest of
the week until October 1st (encompassing Marsh's first work as Sara) and
resumed the following week, from the 4th to the 8th. There were a variety
of delays throughout this period, often due to problems with the props and
models constructed by freelance firm Shawcraft. Shawcraft informed Wiles
that they could no longer handle all the work coming out of the Doctor
Who office, and would not be adverse to Wiles seeking out other
companies to share some of the burden.

Amongst the model shots not completed during the two weeks at Ealing were
those of the volcano on Tigus. As originally constructed by Shawcraft,
this was out of scale with the miniature TARDIS. Further attempts at the
shots were made on October 18th and 21st, but on both occasions problems
with the slow-motion film stymied Camfield's team. They were finally
captured successfully on November 15th.

Recording began on October 22nd in Studio TC3 at the BBC's Television
Centre. As usual, each episode was recorded on consecutive Fridays, with
the exception of Christmas Eve (although an extra day of filming at Ealing
was eventually scheduled for December 27th). TC3 was the venue for every
episode except Counter Plot and Coronas Of The Sun on
November 19th and 26th, which shifted to TC4. On October 25th, still
photos of a model TARDIS were taken in Hammersmith Park, London, for the
sequence at the cricket test match in Volcano.

Adrienne Hill's final recording day was November 12th, when The
Traitors was taped; this also marked Marsh's debut. Hill's emphasis
after leaving Doctor Who was on her family, although she maintained
a role in the BBC Radio soap opera Waggoner's Walk. In the
Eighties, Hill became a drama teacher. She died of cancer on October 6th,
1997.

Meanwhile, the pressures were mounting on the production team. On November
19th, the same day that Counter Plot was recorded, Barry Learoyd,
Chief Designer for Drama, admonished Wiles for what he saw as insufficient
time being permitted for consultation between the director and the
designer. Learoyd suggested that no director should be permitted to handle
more than six episodes at a time as a means of avoiding this problem in
the future.

The already fragile relationship between William Hartnell
and John Wiles was degenerating further

The already fragile relationship between Hartnell and Wiles was also
degenerating further, not helped by the deteriorating state of the star's
health. Wiles was becoming increasingly exasperated by Hartnell's tendency
to deviate from his scripted lines, and had to deal with a brief crew
strike arising from a dispute between Hartnell and his dresser. Things got
so bad that on December 16th, the Manchester Evening News reported
that Hartnell would be quitting Doctor Who, although this did not
transpire.

The Feast Of Steven was recorded on December 3rd. Camfield had
approached Z Cars producer David Rose for permission to use the
programme's police station set and hire series stars Colin Welland (PC
David Graham), Joseph Brady (PC “Jock” Weir), James Ellis (PC
Bert Lynch) and Brian Blessed (PC “Fancy” Smith) to make an
appearance in the episode. Rose refused, however, feeling that the comedic
tone of Feast made for an inappropriate crossover with his serious
drama; the castmembers in question would also be busy with the new season
of Z Cars during the period Camfield would require them. As a
result, Camfield decided to simply hire new actors to play the roles. He
also cast his wife, Sheila Dunn, to play silent film heroine Blossom
Lefavre.

An unusual aspect of The Feast Of Steven was the Doctor's
fourth-wall-breaking Christmas greeting to the TV viewers, which
immediately preceded the closing credits. Wiles and Tosh, who greatly
disliked the gesture, would later claim that this was an unplanned ad-lib
by Hartnell, although the fact that the line appears in Camfield's camera
script suggests otherwise.

The next night, Counter Plot was transmitted on BBC1. Some days
later, Camfield found himself being contacted by the production office for
the feature film 2001: A Space Odyssey, who were enquiring as to
the processes Camfield had used to achieve both the bodies floating in
space and the “molecular dissemination” effect.

As 1965 came to a close, a sea change was signalled for Doctor Who:
during December, Wiles and Tosh submitted their resignations. Wiles, never
entirely comfortable as a producer, felt burned out by the gruelling
schedule imposed on him by The Daleks' Master Plan, and was weary
of his ongoing battles with Hartnell. Indeed, Wiles had suggested finding
a new actor to play the Doctor, but did not gain approval from Gerald
Savory. Tosh felt that he should stay loyal to Wiles, and was also eager
to try his hand at other material.

For unknown reasons, the Doctor was removed from a large
portion of the final two episodes

Due to the holidays, there was no recording on Christmas Eve. On
December 27th, however, Camfield's team return to the Ealing Television
Film Studios to capture the special effects sequences involving the Time
Destructor. Meanwhile, for unknown reasons, the Doctor was removed from
a large portion of the final two episodes of Serial V. Instead, Steven
assumed the Doctor's lines while his own were split between himself and
Sara. The Doctor now disappeared shortly after the TARDIS materialised
on Kembel in The Abandoned Planet, and reappeared suddenly in the
underground Dalek base near the start of Destruction Of Time.

The latter episode was recorded on January 14th, 1966, finally bringing
the torturous production schedule to an end. This also marked the
conclusion of Marsh's short tenure as a Doctor Who companion. She
went on to great fame as the cocreator and star of LWT's Upstairs,
Downstairs and appeared in the short-lived American sitcom 9 To
5 (based on the movie of the same name). Marsh has maintained a
prolific stage schedule and has appeared in feature films such as
Return To Oz and Willow. In 1989, she returned to Doctor
Who to play Morgaine in Battlefield. The
character of Sara Kingdom, meanwhile, would be revived by Nation for
The Destroyers, the pilot script for his unrealised Dalek TV
series. The Destroyers would have also introduced another brother
of hers, David Kingdom.

No less than three of the twelve episodes comprising The Daleks' Master
Plan underran their allotted timeslot. Wiles claimed that The
Nightmare Begins was short because of difficulty in accurately timing
special effects shots, and that Destruction Of Time had to be cut
down when the latter portion of Sara's death scene was deemed unsuitable.
Wiles' explanation for the abbreviated length of Escape Switch was
that “a cast member” (presumably Hartnell) had omitted some of
his dialogue; however, this claim is not borne out by the camera
scripts.

With John Wiles' resignation, Innes Lloyd would be the new
producer of Doctor Who

Around mid-January, the replacements for Wiles and Tosh were identified.
The new producer of Doctor Who would be Innes Lloyd. Lloyd had been
an actor in repertory theatre when he became a studio manager for BBC
Radio. He then worked in various capacities for BBC Television before
becoming a director on programmes like United! and The
Newcomers. It was with some reluctance that Lloyd, who was not a fan
of science fiction and -- like Wiles -- preferred the director's chair,
agreed to produce Doctor Who.

Lloyd would be joined by story editor Gerry Davis. After getting his start
as a newspaper reporter, Davis went on to work in both radio and
television with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation; he had also written
for the Canadian Film Board. He was hired by the BBC after former Head of
Serials Donald Wilson was impressed by a TV scriptwriting course Davis had
conceived. Davis was story editing United! when he asked to be
moved to a London-based series; this turned out to be Doctor
Who.